The Case Aganast roleplaying as the Warrior of Light

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

Of course you don't need that, as long as you do your imagining all by yourself.
But if you are going to do any actual RP, together with other people, you all need to agree to some ground rules - just like when playing any game.

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I think that is the main takeaway as to why roleplaying as the Warrior of Light isn't recommended: Playing with others as your character.
https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/topic/21696-rping-wol-fc-question/?tab=comments#comment-310672
This particular post From Hydaelyn Roleplayers I feel sums up the reservations pretty well: "Anyone claiming that their character is a Warrior of Light is basically claiming that their character is one of the most important people to exist in Hydaelyn."

The WoL is literally superhuman, and that on its own is polarizing. The amount of achievements, connections, abilities, and so on are extremely beyond the typical person. It also leads to issues as to what would challenge them, the potential consequences of crossing them, and other lore related things related to a character that, for one reason or another, decides to stand up to the Warrior of Light or not do what they say, which only grows should the Warrior of Light get thwarted. Characters based on the Warrior of Light, because they are working off of someone already far overpowered, tend to be overpowered themselves, and have the very plot of the game as something to lord people over with, which to many RP communities, is an unfair advantage.


That said, making someone overpowered or godmodding their actions is stuff that would affect how well a character is written even if they weren't the Warrior of Light.

Roleplay as whatever you want.

Just be aware that even roleplayers have many different preferences so it's just finding the right people who share the same preferences.

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Originally Posted by Kallera

This particular post From Hydaelyn Roleplayers I feel sums up the reservations pretty well: "Anyone claiming that their character is a Warrior of Light is basically claiming that their character is one of the most important people to exist in Hydaelyn."

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99% of that website is concerned with making sure people don't RP anything that might be interesting, fun, or resemble something from a Final Fantasy game. Yawn.

I am the WoL, and the main character of my story. That story is finding a huggable pillow I can use and a bucket of icecream cause grinding for air currents is hard. Don't @ me!!! D:<

I simply prefer to have have two versions of Jojo, my character.

The first is the version Square Enix has more or less crafted for me with the game's story and it is the Warrior of Light and Darkness himself. Let me highlight the fact that I do not actively roleplay with this version of the character but I like to imagine different scenarios and how he might respond to them. For example, I might come up with a reason as to why he would go from being a white mage to a warrior to a dark knight and so on and so forth. In-game, your character just sort of... does things. What I do is essentially come up with the thoughts he may or may not have about the things he does, be it pick up a new job or go fishing.

The second version is the one I have crafted. Although this Jojo shares his appearance with the WoL/D Jojo, they have entirely different backgrounds. This Jojo is a dancer-healer, born to a couple of alchemists in some nameless town along the west coast of Thavnair. He'd spent much of his youth paying off a debt to a troupe of entertainers, where he learned to dance. Years later, his travels would lead him to Gridania, where he'd find a home with the conjurers' guild. I wrote him to be an eclectic sort of person, which is why I consider him to be a healer in the broadest sense: not a conjurer, not a white mage, not an astrologian, not a scholar. His medical knowledge is a bit of an amalgam of all these branches. It's entirely possible that there are instances which merit the use of conjury over astrology, etc... Hell, being that he was the son of alchemists, the use of potions and the like is not out of the question. Of course, this Jojo isn't the WoL/D, so I'm coming up with a few ways to have him learn the different arts without necessarily carrying all the baggage that comes with it. White magic, for example, could prove to be quite difficult to learn, considering what an exclusive club that is.

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Originally Posted by DRKoftheAzure

Might as well throw in my opinion; can you RP as THE DEFACTO WOL... I don't think I have a proper answer for that one... but you CAN RP as A WOL, which is a fair compromise...


But then there is going to be at least 1 person who WILL argue WHY you can't RP as A WOL(which mostly boils down to "Fun not allowed because I didn't come up with the idea first" tantrum)...

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Or people just don't find the concept of RPing with someone claiming to be any sort of significant figure in the lore of the world to be interesting and simply choose to not RP with anyone desiring to do so? Very few people are actually going to argue with someone about the specifics; they're just going to decline, maybe say 'not interested in RPing with WoL characters', and find someone else. From the years of being in RP circles in FF14, its more often the case in my experience that people who want to be WoL's are the ones throwing tantrums/arguing than others.

At the end of the day, people can RP whatever they want. But RPing as story-related characters, characters that have huge significance in politics, or WoLs will automatically turn away anyone who's interested in RPing out down to earth, common folk interactions/adventures, which is the vast majority of public RP. if someone wants to RP as a WoL, they just have to find like-minded individuals while understanding their desire has limited their choice of RP partners by a considerable margin. Everyone has their preferences.

Personally, I already get enough of WoL antics and shenanigans in the MSQ. I'm not interested in bringing it into RP and exploring fun, small-time stories, character interactions, etc. If someone was claiming to be a WoL, I'd be straight up telling them 'you're either losing your WoL tag while RPing with me, or I'm finding someone else.'

One of the driving issues for RPing the WoL/WoD is limitations, in lore the WoL is basically a messianic figure with untold powers able to take on any foe with the power of immense friendship and unbreakable bonds, further the NPCs around the WoL all refer to them as a singular being (though they do acknowledge the 'friends, mercenaries, other heroes' that the WoL summons in boss battles. In the beginning they went out of their way to say that the other players you wrangle up for dungeons are mercenaries and fellow adventurers, NOT WoLs, in the latest dungeon the other players are explicitly called aspects or heroes from other worlds, much like how Ardbert was an aspect/hero from another world that was literally a splintered fragment of the WoL's soul. For his part in things Elidibus tries to copy you and in his fight he summons heroes from other worlds, champions in their own right to battle against you, so it's not like the world has only a single heroic figure who is the WoL it's more that the WoL is a title bestowed to these heroic figures in which the WoL of the Source is we the players.

So, let's say everyone RPs are the WoL, you have to acknowledge a couple things, either only one of the people claiming to be the WoL KNOWS the NPCs or the NPCs just call everyone the WoL and just kind of ignore the fact they also know a couple thousand OTHER WoLs. Further you also have to take into fact that every single WoL in that collective group has spearheaded the raids, slayen the Primals, brought low the Ascians, and whatever else which should be a feat accomplished at most by the WoL and a group of 7 other random WoLs further reducing the accomplishments of the WoL as a central figure.

It's just kind of messy.

I personally RP as just a random explorer that has interacted/fought alongside the WoL and the NPCs, it's just much easier and it provides far more freedom for my own headcanon separate from the railroaded story of the game (aka I can be an asshole, the WoL IN CANON is a pushover save for the DRK WoL in which case they harbor a secret deeply hidden resentment for being a pushover.)

Thanks but I'll pass.

Is it honestly that big of a deal anyway? Most people only RP in decently small circles compaired to everyone in the game. When I visit balmung people are rping all over the place and none of them are connected so if someone wants to bring their msq character into an rp who cares? Thats pretty much what they are doing. I understand there being rules but the more people get down to it.. it just gets way too silly. Most people are trying to bone other characters anyway. When I used to try to rp adventures all people wanted to do was bone. I couldn't even get people together to even do anything other than make babies. Let alone do a longer style RP like an action anime series. People either want to be nobodies or sex gods. :c

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Originally Posted by Floortank

99% of that website is concerned with making sure people don't RP anything that might be interesting, fun, or resemble something from a Final Fantasy game. Yawn.

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A statement which is 100% wrong. Most of that website is about how to have fun when doing RP, and about finding other people to RP with.

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Originally Posted by Controller

Is it honestly that big of a deal anyway? Most people only RP in decently small circles compaired to everyone in the game. When I visit balmung people are rping all over the place and none of them are connected

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Actually, that is not quite true. Most RP is done in small circles, true - but the circles overlap. Some of the people in group A will also play together with people in group B from time to time, and someone in group A will also play together with people from group C, and so on. There are usually enough open RP events that it is rare for the circles not to overlap at least some.
If you start from a random roleplayer, trace the characters that person RPs with - be it occasionally or often - and then keep tracing connections, then you will eventually reach a large portion of the RP community.